But on the plus side, life cannot be lived through a blog alone…
We have had very mild autumn weather here which I am enjoying with Archie and two new Norwegian walking poles, replacing the old ones which were second-hand and fell to pieces a couple of weeks ago. The new poles are lighter and have the benefit of encouraging the swinging of both arms which is important after a stroke to try to regain a more even, balanced walking style.
I have also discovered Magloc, which was featured some weeks ago on Dragons’ Den – I don’t think the Dragons invested, but I did, as I could immediately see the benefit of the device for stroke survivors with weakness or paralysis in one hand. Attaching a lead to a squirming dog is a two-handed operation and the Magloc allows you to attach the lead to the dog’s collar by means of an ingenious magnetic locking device, which simply requires you to point the end of the lead at another small magnet fitted to the collar. The magnet is not powerful enough to cause the dog to leap towards you (I wish), but it makes the whole operation a lot easier. It is suitable for dogs up to 40 kilos, which means it is probably suitable for all whippets.(Archie has peaked, hopefully, at 14 kilos).
This is a short post, but it ends with an invitation to any followers of this blog likely to be in Edinburgh on 24 November 2015. At 6 p.m. on that date the Alliance is hosting an event entitled Reading, Writing and your Health: Journeys in Self-Management in the Scottish Story Telling Centre in Edinburgh’s High Street. This event is part of Scottish Book Week. Together with others who have used writing or blogging as part of self-managing a health condition, I will be talking about this and reading from Man, Dog, Stroke. I will be delighted to meet any followers of this blog face to face on that evening. You can get more details by clicking on the link above.
Eric Writing from Angus and Fiona.s home at le Vesintet having flown from Aberdeen yesterday to Paris Charles de Gaulle. Aa very smooth flight and marvellous to have Fiona pick me up at the Airport and not needing to do the journey to their home in Le Vesinet (close to Versailles) by the RER underground. Today a marvellous occasion when Fiona and I were allowed to accompany Angus to the French Remembrance Service at the Armistice Railway carriage site just outside Compiegne. Angus was representing the British Ambassador and had to inspect a guard of honour of various French legionnaires, akin to our British Royal Legion, alongside the Russian, Italian, Hungarian and American Ambassadors. No German or Japanese present as far as I could see. Quite an occasion with lots of French Army, Airforce, Marine, Gendarmerie and Pompiers present. Luckily weather was perfect. We sat next to Le Marashall Foch’s great grandson, an interesting man to chat to. Tomorrow Fiona and I drive off to Brussels for a couple of nights to watch Emily (15) play football for her International school of Croissy versus other International schools. Luckily we are being put up by friends who Angus and Fiona had met formerly in Paris. Maybe I will get a glimpse of Waterloo while we are there. Emily’s birthday is on Saturday and maybe we will be able to celebrate this somewhere in Paris after we have returned from Brussels. Looking forward to seeing you both sometime soon and sorry to be so late in my reply. Please give Archie a pat from me. With my best wishes and love to Jo…. John